Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

1990s

Hungary's first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest would have been "Árva reggel", performed by Andrea Szulák, in 1993, but a qualification round was held for former Eastern Bloc countries, and the song did not manage to qualify to the final. The first official Hungarian participation was with "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?", performed by Friderika Bayer, in 1994. This proved successful, as Hungary received the maximum score of 12 points from the first three countries to vote. However, as the competition progressed, it attracted fewer votes and ultimately finished in fourth place. This still holds as their best result ever.

The 1995 entry was not as successful, garnering only 3 points, narrowly beating last-place Germany. In 1996 Hungary again failed to qualify when "Fortuna", performed by Gjon Delhusa did not qualify from the pre-qualification round. Then, Hungary participated in 1997 and 1998 contests.

Following a poor placement in the 1998 contest, Hungary was relegated from participating in 1999. However, after Latvia, who was originally set to debut, withdrew its participation at a late stage, its place in the contest was subsequently offered to Hungary as the excluded country with the highest average points total. However, Hungary decided against participation, and continued to be absent from the contest for the next six years.^[1]

2000s

Having been absent since 1999, Hungary had planned to return in 2004,^[2] but ultimately did not take part in the contest. They eventually returned in 2005, where they finished in 12th place in the final with "Forogj, világ!", performed by NOX. However, Hungary withdrew again in 2006, returning in 2007 with "Unsubstantial Blues", the first Hungarian entry in English, performed by Magdi Rúzsa, the winner of the 3rd season of the Hungarian talent show Megasztár. The song came 9th in Helsinki, receiving 128 points in the final.

After coming last in the semi-final in the 2008 contest, MTV confirmed Hungary's participation at the 2009 contest in Moscow. After its original choice was revealed to have been released before 1 October 2008, breaking contest rules, it was decided that "Dance with Me", performed by Zoltán Ádok, would be Hungary's entry, after MTV's second choice to represent Hungary declined.^[3][4] The song placed 15th in the second semi-final, failing to qualify for the grand final for the second time since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004.

2010s

In October 2009, MTV confirmed that it would not participate in the 2010 contest due to financial limitations in the company which would prevent it from sending an entry.^[5] Duna Televízió broadcast the event live and applied for EBU membership to send a representative to Düsseldorf in 2011. However, during the EBU's 65th conference, Duna's bid to become an active member was rejected.

In December 2010, it was confirmed that MTVA had agreed to return to the 2011 edition.^[6] MTVA internally selected the song "What About My Dreams?", performed by Kati Wolf. The song placed 7th in the first semi-final with 72 points and was the first entry representing Hungary to qualify for the final since 2007. In the final, the song placed 22nd with 53 points.

In 2012, MTVA organised a national final, A Dal, to select the Hungarian entry for the contest in Baku. The song "Sound of Our Hearts", performed by Compact Disco, was selected. The song placed 10th in the first semi-final with 52 points, and 24th in the final with 19 points. A Dal had been used as the Hungarian selection process annually until 2019.

In 2013, Hungary reached the top 10, when the song "Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)", performed by ByeAlex, placed 10th with 84 points. Hungary reached the top five in 2014, when the song "Running", performed by András Kállay-Saunders, placed fifth with 143 points, achieving the best result for Hungary in the contest since its 1994 debut.

Hungary made it to the top ten once again in 2017, when the song "Origo", performed by Joci Pápai, placed 8th with 200 points, achieving their best result in three years. Pápai represented Hungary again in 2019 with the song "Az én apám", but failed to qualify for the final, marking Hungary's first non-qualification since 2009.

2020s

Hungary did not appear on the final list of participants for the 2020 contest, which was subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it has been absent from the contest since.^[7][8][9] MTVA stated that it would continue to organise A Dal to "support the valuable productions created by the talents of Hungarian pop music directly" instead of participating in the contest.^[10] The withdrawal came during a rise of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment among the leadership of Hungary and MTVA; while no official reason for the withdrawal was given by the broadcaster, an inside source speaking with the website Index.hu speculated that the contest was considered "too gay" for MTVA to participate.^[11]

At a forum in Győr in August 2025, when asked about Hungary's absence from the contest, the chairman of the Tisza Party, Péter Magyar, stated that if his party is able to form a government after the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election (in which the Tisza Party went on to win a supermajority), he would consider initiating the country's return to the event.^[12][13][14]

Marcel Bezençon Awards

More information Year, Category ...

Year	Category	Song	Composer(s) lyrics (l) / music (m)	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2007	Composer Award	"Unsubstantial Blues"	Magdi Rúzsa (m) and Imre Mózsik (l)	Magdi Rúzsa	9	128	Helsinki	[15]

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Winner by OGAE members

More information Year, Song ...

Year	Song	Performer	Place	Points	Host city	Ref.
2011	"What About My Dreams?"	Kati Wolf	22	53	Düsseldorf	[16]

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Barbara Dex Award

More information Year, Performer ...

Year	Performer	Host city	Ref.
2009	Zoli Ádok	Moscow	[17]

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Conductors

Their first entry was conducted by Péter Wolf

Heads of delegation

Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others.^[18]

Commentators and spokespersons